Monday, May 12, 2008

Giant Ant (Step 18) - ta daaa!

We arrived on-site at 10 am, May 12, 2008. The sky loomed ominously overhead, but we were steadfast in our determination. We would build that ant!

There were some last minute tweeks to the leg sockets, upgrading from a 3/8ths bolt, to a 7/16ths...oh the humanity!

Laying out the pieces, we took a quick inventory.

And here's the site all prepped and ready for digging!

Much love for the ant head!
The first step was to put the legs onto the body so we could get our footing placements.

And temporarily adding the head made it easier to orientate the ant in a good direction.


Still mapping.

Then we marked the foot print, and slid over the whole sculpture so we could start digging.

So we had a few problems at this point. It would seem that the concrete base for the flag pole extended a few extra feet in every direction, making digging a bit tricky.



Luckily the city folks arrived in the nick of time and were ready to lend a hand. They trimmed up some of the concrete anchors I had made, so our holes didn't have to go as deep and then we were good to go!


Then we aligned the anchors to the foot holds, and bolted them in place.




And then we just had to tamp down the dirt in each hole and cover up the evidence.

It was now time to attach the abdomen...


...even more fun.


But we finally got it in place, and locked it down.
Then it was time for the last minute touch-ups.

Such as painting the tops of the bolts and nuts to blend in with the rest of the ant.

And there she is, in all her glory!






The End :)

(many thanks to Christopher Greiner for Step 18's great photos)

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